different between pyramidal vs cacuminous

English

Etymology

From medieval Latin pyramidalis.

Pronunciation

• enPR: p?-r?m??-d?l IPA^(key): /p???æm.?.dl?/

Adjective

pyramidal (not comparable)

1. (geometry) Pyramid-shaped.
2. (crystallography) Tetragonal.

Derived terms

• pyramidally
• subpyramidal

Translations

Noun

pyramidal (plural pyramidals)

1. (anatomy) One of the carpal bones

Derived terms

• peripyramidal

Related terms

• cuneiform

French

Pronunciation

Adjective

pyramidal (feminine singular pyramidale, masculine plural pyramidaux, feminine plural pyramidales)

1. pyramidal

Derived terms

• vente pyramidale

Further reading

• “pyramidal” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

cac?min- (the stem of the Latin cac?men (“tree-top”)) + -ous

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: k?kyo?o?m?n?s, IPA^(key): /k??kju?m?n?s/

Adjective

cacuminous (not comparable)

1. (rare) Having a pyramidal top.

   Cleopatra’s Needles are three cacuminous monoliths first erected in Ancient Egypt over a thousand years before the birth of Christ.

   • 1597: John Hoskyns’ “A Tuftafffeta Speech”, printed in Sir Benjamin Rudyerd’s 1660 Le Prince d’Amour, and reprinted on page 100 of Louise Brown Osborn’s 1937 The Life, Letters, and Writings of John Hoskyns, 1566–1638 (published by the Yale University Press)

     [A]s the snow advanced vpon y? poynts vertical of cacuminous mountains dissolveth and discoagulateth it self into humorous liquidity[.]

   • 1834: James Atkinson, Medical Bibliography, s.v. “Acerbi Joseph”, page 165

     Equally so as it ha been in his own, over the estuous rivers of Lapland, or its frozen and cacuminous mountains;

   • ante 1879: Mortimer Collins, Pen Sketches by a Vanished Hand, volume 1, page 248

     Luminous books (not voluminous) To read under beech-trees cacuminous.

Related terms

• cacuminal
• cacuminate
• cacumination

Translations

References

• “cacuminous, a.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd Ed.; 1989]